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#VOA

7 posts5 participants0 posts today

"DC Circuit splits, 2-1, to allow Trump admin to proceed with mass layoffs & funding halts impacting #VOA, RFE, RL & others. Katsas (Trump)/Rao (Trump) maj. Pillard (Obama) dissents. Another en banc motion looms?"
-J Gerstein

Judge Pillard dissented Sat, writing: decision is tantamount to “silencing VOA for the foreseeable future.”

But even when employees were looking at a RTW, some Q whether or not the agency will be able to return to its previous state.
#Courts #USPol
politico.com/news/2025/05/03/v

I read reports here, of Chinese broadcasts picking up frequencies where Voice of America used to transmit.

Scanning the shortwave bands yesterday evening, most of the English language broadcasts I found, were actually Chinese. You can tell, because they are all helpfully watermarked with Chinese background music. One program, repeated at at least 5 different frequencies, was a supposedly funny and entertaining discussion about Chinese income tax... meh.

If that's aimed at the Chinese diaspora, ok. Also great for steganographic codes. But if that's aimed at filling the frequencies where #VOA used to transmit, it raises the question: what kind of decision making process results in plenty hardware transmission capacity on stand by, but no interesting content? Filling a USB stick with a backlog of talk radio is cheaper than building transmitters, right?

What am I missing? Transmitting boredom as a genius soft power projection strategy???

Replied in thread

@kevinrns
RE
#CBS censored...producer quit because...no...freedom to make his own stories?
Is this what killed #60Minutes?

Recent show on #birdflu and #H5N1 was kinda informative (and scarry) imo. Maybe CBS has lessened control?

@w7voa
RE
#USAGM (including its "special adviser" #KariLake) acted unlawfully in shutting down the #VoiceofAmerica #VOA

Speaking of ⭕ shutting down, #MSNBC and #Politico and #NYTimes reports "Chaos prevails at #ThePentagon"
politico.com/news/2025/04/22/p

VIDEO 4/22

It's legitimately funny to see a propagandist scum like Steve Herman claim that he is "being silenced." When I corrected his misreporting on the Columbia kids protesting (by actually GOING there, something that a lazy and tendentious mouthpiece like Herman was incapable of), this "journalist" responded by blocking me. Well, karma's a pretty funny thing, isn't it? 🤣🤣

The power of international radio. You won’t miss it ’til it’s gone.

Or to use the accurate quote by Joni Mitchell from 1970, “Don't it always seem to go / That you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone”. Well, now something’s gone. And it hurts. The late winter and early spring of 2025 have seen some seismic changes to international radio from the USA. My opinion is that all this was unnecessary and deeply short-sighted. #voa

prefadelisten.com/2025/04/14/t